Lab Report: The Agnew Analog Stereophonic Cutter Head

Happy new year! Time to reveal what has been secretly developing in the lab throughout the past year: A stereophonic cutter head of an entirely unique design, invented by J. I. Agnew during his work with experimental transducers for measurement and testing purposes.

This is not yet another version of the Neumann SX74, Vinylium SC99, FloKaSon Caruso, Westrex SDII, Ortofon DSS, or whatnot. This here is a cutter head based on transducer principles never before attempted in this field. It makes the most out of recent breakthroughs in materials science and the latest published research on transducer design.

The first prototype was finally assembled in December 2018 and is currently undergoing rigorous testing to reveal potential weaknesses that may need to be tended to before going into production. There is no 3D-printing involved. All development and prototyping work is done on the actual high quality materials that the final product will be made of, using traditional precision machining operations. The vast majority of the parts are made of specially selected metal alloys, normally used in the aerospace industry.

We aim to have the final product available within 2019 at a highly competitive price. For now, we can disclose that it is a stereophonic cutter head intended for professional mastering work, of similar dimensions and weight as a Neumann SX74, which can come with adapters to fit Neumann, Scully, Fairchild, Presto, FloKaSon and most other makes and models of disk recording lathes in common use. It is designed to accept the Transco 320, Adamant NSH-2 and other compatible taper shank stylii.

Stay tuned for further details on the bleeding edge of transducer development.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions, comments, or suggestions regarding our cutter head development process.